The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Shades of Linux and Tesla: Honda is opening the plans, schematics and specs for its new Honda Smart Home prototype to all members of the curious commercial community and public who want to see how the place is put together and figure out how they can connect with the project and the trend it represents.

Honda said that more than 1,000 architects, builders, researchers, academics, media, policymakers and "enthusiastic members of the public" have visited the Honda Smart Home in Davis, Calif., since it opened three months ago. The visits have prompted a flood of inquiries and proposals from businesses around the world about getting involved in "green" building like that represented in the house.

So now Honda is publicly posting the building plans, architectural and mechanical drawings, furniture specs and materials associated with the project, including the raw 2D and 3D CAD data.

"Our hope is that the interested individuals across the world are able to use these plans as a starting point to create their very own sustainable homes," a company release said.

Honda's home energy-management system controls the Smart Home on the UC-Davis campus, including the electric Honda Fit in the garage. The Honda house features an enormous 9.5-kilowatt solar array, a 10-kilowatt-hour home battery unit to store excess power, a geothermal pump system -- even foundation concrete whose manufacture was half as carbon-intensive as is standard.

And the house produces more power than it consumes, meaning the owner of such an abode could make money from the power company -- or at least be somewhat insulated from the still-precarious state of the California power grid.

The most recent open-source stir in the auto industry was created a few weeks ago when CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla would gladly share old patents and IP for its battery technology with anyone else, even rivals, who would use them to make a good-faith investment in boosting the availability and appeal of electric vehicles. At this point EVs have become basically a luxury. Even Honda's EV fleet is limited to the Fit all-electric.

Honda's move is similar. And presumably, like Musk and Tesla, what Honda reveals in the plans for its existing Smart Home are at least a generation or so behind its cutting-edge IP for the next generation of Smart Home.